tis the season - TOEFL

The biggest problem encountered in TESOL education overseas has been the new speaking part of the TOEFL. For once in the mostly passive educational environment of Asia, students are forced to not just speak, but THINK.
As in think about something other than the latest movie, cell phone app, or trashy, vacuous trend.

Materials to support such thinking activities (hence speaking) are notoriously lacking even in regards to sources in their native language.

In an effort to avoid spending more money for my own textbooks (my company - POSEF - can not apparently afford to purchase a few meager learning materials, much less text books for its students much less the teachers.), I searched and found some sample question sites online.

English Club : includes actual audio file samples and transcripts in case the audio files flunk out on you.

TOEFL HELPDESK : Nice lengthy list of speaking topics.

Internet TESL Journal : HUGE selection of questions arranged by category. Not necessarily TOEFL related.

English-Test.net : sub-forum concerning the TOEFL test. Nice wealth of material, but you need to search through to find speaking-related posts.


Cheers! (^_-)-☆

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a different kind of morning shower.

Since ancient times, chocolate has been tauted as an aphrodisiac.
But coffee....?



I'll just stick with chocolate, thank you.
(click on picture to read the English "To Use" instructions.)


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... and Fauna of the sub-tropics

There's always Bupo Beach if you are feeling to lazy to make the 2 hour trip to Busan.
(I love the cliff-like crevice dug out by the waves. I have never seen that phenomena at any other beach.)



But this will surely forever sum up the image of Korea for me.





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Flora of the sub-tropics

Around the neighborhood:


And around my doctor's office:
(In addition to the color, I love the puffy, fan-like shape, how they seem almost furry.)


One thing I absolutely LOVE about Asia is the abundance of these flowers which I only know as 蓮の花 and 木蓮.

蓮の花 in clay water pots are all over, particularly around hospitals.


And 木蓮 flowers are giant and have the most amazing smell:



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Gift Giving Gone Wrong.

While waiting for the taxi that never came I was accosted by two very nice (and hence very rare) girls that had attended camp.
One peeked around the street post I was huddled against for shelter. "Teacher. Why are you standing here?"
"Waiting for a taxi."
"You should take bus."
"... Yeah, I'm thinking there's no more taxi." After 15 minutes in 2 degree weather it was long past time to give up anyway.

She was carrying the wrapped gift from the Camp Closing Ceremony.
"Ooooh! What is it?" I grabbed it and started squishing it for consistency. It was obvious what it was immediately, but apparently not only to me since before I could declare what knowledge the fruits of my man handling had brought me, her friend piped in, "It's a note book."

That conversation ended as flatly as her statement.

But it did get me thinking about the rampant, pointless gift-giving.
The girls had gifts from giving speeches and so did the class leaders. Class leaders got an extremely exciting package consisting of a 3-ink ballpoint pen and yellow post-it notes!!!!

Seriously. Even if these middle school kids wanted a notebook in the first place - a dubious presumption at best - it's highly unlikely they wanted the generic, bargin bin leftovers bought enmasse that they were handed.
As gifts.

So what was the point of this shameful waste of money on unwanted gifts when they couldn't even provide the teacher's supplies to teach?

I realized then that the gifts were not for the children, but for their blind and adoring parents to see - Look. We, too, adore your preciouseses. We have given gifts to your preciouseses. We can't say we gave much in the way of an educational experience over this past week, but we did spend money on a real gift that you can hold and see for yourself.

...
And thus ends another torturous two weeks of English Camp.


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